Devils And Flyers Seeking Depth Centers
Considering that we’re basically just at the one-quarter mark of the season, the trade market hasn’t really materialized aside from a handful of smaller moves. But that doesn’t stop teams from setting their respective wish lists and determining what areas they’d like to add to their rosters.
As is often the case, help down the middle is an area that a lot of teams will be targeting. Among them are a pair of Metropolitan Division teams. Anthony Di Marco of Daily Faceoff reports that while acquiring a top replacement for Jack Hughes is unlikely, they’d like to add a depth center to the mix. Meanwhile, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on the latest 32 Thoughts podcast (audio link) that the Flyers are also looking for an extra depth middleman.
New Jersey had been looking to add a center last season. However, when Hughes suffered a season-ending shoulder injury, they pivoted from looking to make a big addition to more of a depth one in Cody Glass. Speculatively, that’s the type of depth addition they’d likely want to make, one that would add to the roster without costing too much to acquire.
The other element in play is the player’s actual cost. The Devils are deep into LTIR with Johnathan Kovacevic and Brett Pesce currently on there while Hughes is eligible given that he’s out for the better part of two months. But eventually, when they’re all healthy, New Jersey is going to be right against the Upper Limit of the salary cap so if they go add someone to help at center, it ideally would be a lower-cost addition that’s easier to fit on their books.
As for the Flyers, they haven’t really replaced Jett Luchanko after he was assigned back to junior last month. Rodrigo Abols has been filling a role as a fourth-line center but the 29-year-old only has 36 career NHL games under his belt. In a perfect world, a more proven and impactful option would be a good way for them to go.
On the other hand, Philadelphia enters play today seventh in the Metropolitan Division and the expectation heading into the season was that they’d be a non-playoff team and a likely seller. Not enough has happened yet to change those expectations so taking a big swing on the trade front might not the prudent move. Instead, a smaller addition now that doesn’t cost a lot but could still help would make sense for GM Daniel Briere. Unlike the Devils, cap space isn’t a concern for the Flyers so they could have a bigger pool of players to potentially target.
The good news for these teams is that depth centers are a little easier to come by and the odd one finds their way onto the waiver wire as John Beecher did earlier this week. The bad news is that with the number of teams seeking center help, New Jersey and Philadelphia will likely be battling several suitors even for the types of depth upgrades it appears that they’re looking to make.
Devils Reassign Ethan Edwards
Friday: Edwards has been sent back to Utica, per a team announcement. He didn’t see any game action with New Jersey while on recall.
Monday: The Devils announced they’ve recalled defenseman Ethan Edwards from AHL Utica. New Jersey placed center Cody Glass on injured reserve, retroactive to Nov. 12, in the corresponding move.
After an impressive training camp, the 23-year-old Edwards lands his first recall in his first professional season. The 5’10” lefty was a fourth-round pick in 2020 from the Spruce Grove Saints of the junior ‘A’ AJHL before jumping south of the border, first with USHL Sioux City before embarking on a four-year run at the University of Michigan. Edwards was a consistent force on the Wolverines’ blue line, checking in as a top-four puck-mover who played more physically than one would expect from his slight frame. He was named to the Big 10’s Second All-Star Team following his senior season, in which he notched a career-best 5-16–21 scoring line in 36 games, before signing his entry-level deal with Jersey last March.
Although the two-year contract didn’t take effect until this season, he still finished out the 2024-25 season with Utica on a tryout basis. In his first 10 professional games, Edwards notched three assists and a +3 rating. He entered this year as the No. 9 prospect in the system, according to Elite Prospects, and made a legitimate push for a roster spot with two points and four scoring chances in four preseason games. He ended up being a very late cut, though, and started the year in Utica as expected.
Through 13 games in the AHL, Edwards hasn’t exploded offensively but is still chugging along with one goal, four assists, and a -1 rating. The Devils need an additional offensive-minded option with Dougie Hamilton still sidelined with an undisclosed injury, though, and Edwards fits that bill. With Hamilton, Johnathan Kovacevic, and Brett Pesce all out, their top-four group is still strong thanks to a breakout Simon Nemec, but they’re riding a patchwork third-pairing of fringe NHLers Dennis Cholowski and Colton White. As White is pointless with a -1 rating through four games and is averaging under 12 minutes per night, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him get a game or two in the press box for Edwards to make his NHL debut, at least until Hamilton’s able to return (which should be soon).
The Devils previously announced Glass was week-to-week with an upper-body injury, so he’ll be out significantly longer than when he’s first eligible to come off IR on Wednesday. The 26-year-old pivot had only played four games since missing seven with another upper-body issue before exiting the lineup again last week. Through 10 appearances this season, he’s got three goals on 19 shots while averaging 11:59 of ice time per game.
Dougie Hamilton, Connor Brown To Resume Skating
Despite recent injuries affecting the New Jersey Devils, there is light at the end of the tunnel. According to team reporter Amanda Stein, the Devils are expected to welcome back defenseman Dougie Hamilton and forward Connor Brown to practice on Monday.
Hamilton, who’s tied as the highest-paid defenseman on New Jersey’s roster, hasn’t played since November 6th due to an undisclosed injury. The injury to Hamilton has left the Devils’ blue line relatively devastated, as they’re also without Brett Pesce and Johnathan Kovacevic on the right side. Despite missing the last few games, Hamilton is third on the team in scoring among defensemen with three goals and seven points in 14 games.
Devils’ Cody Glass Out Week-To-Week With Upper-Body Injury
The New Jersey Devils ‘ center core continues to be depleted. A few hours after sharing that Jack Hughes would miss the next two months after hand surgery, the Devils announced that Cody Glass is considered week-to-week with an upper-body injury.
It truly couldn’t be worse news for New Jersey. Staying mostly healthy to start the year, the Devils have gotten off to an expectedly solid start, sitting atop the Metropolitan Division with a 12-4-1 start through their first 17 games.
Unfortunately, without Hughes and Glass for the foreseeable future, New Jersey will again be tested up front, as they have been so often in recent years. Although few teams would be upset with Nico Hischier as their first-line middleman, the Devils are now incredibly thin behind him.
According to the line rushes this morning, the Devils have shifted Dawson Mercer to the second-line center, with Luke Glendening and Juho Lammikko as the remaining options in the bottom-six. Last season, when New Jersey’s depth was tested after Hughes went down for the season around the trade deadline, the Devils stumbled into the postseason. The Carolina Hurricanes quickly dispatched them.
This isn’t the first time that Glass has dealt with injuries this season. He missed a few games with an upper-body injury in late October and returned for four games before the subsequent injury. Throughout his first 10 games this season, Glass has scored three goals with a 48.4% success rate in the faceoff dot while averaging 11:59 of ice time.
Devils’ Jack Hughes Out Two Months With Non-Hockey Hand Injury
Saturday: The Devils provided an update on Hughes, announcing that he has undergone surgery. He will be reevaluated in six weeks and the expected recovery timeline is eight weeks. With New Jersey having just $12.5K in available cap space per PuckPedia, Hughes is almost certainly heading for LTIR which would open up $3.82MM in available spending room.
Friday: In an odd report, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman shared that the New Jersey Devils will be without center Jack Hughes for at least one game after accidentally cutting his hand at a team dinner. The Devils confirmed the report and added that Hughes is still being evaluated.
Once again, Hughes was off to a sensational start to the season, only to have it paused due to injury. He began the 2025-26 campaign with 10 goals and 20 points in 17 games, leading New Jersey in scoring while tying for 22nd in the league with Brad Marchand, Sidney Crosby, Kyle Connor, Troy Terry, Nick Suzuki, Jason Robertson, and Leon Draisaitl.
Hopefully, for the Devils’ sake, Hughes will only miss a few games at most. Last season, around the trade deadline, New Jersey went 9-10-1 to finish the season and lost to the Carolina Hurricanes in the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Devils were 33-23-6 before Hughes was injured.
His injury history is becoming a little much to overlook. Since the beginning of the 2021-22 campaign, Hughes has played in 268 regular-season contests for the Devils, which is only 77.7% of potential contests. Still, he’s been one of, if not the team’s best player over that stretch, scoring 133 goals and 319 points while averaging 20:25 of ice time per game.
Luckily, the team has an in-house replacement for Hughes on the first line in captain Nico Hischier. In the same stretch that Hughes has suffered multiple injuries, Hischier has remained remarkably consistent, scoring 117 goals and 288 points in 314 games, with a +41 rating and a 54.5% faceoff rate, while averaging 19:41 of ice time per game.
Depending on how long Hughes is out for, it could jumpstart New Jersey’s aggressiveness in acquiring some forward depth. The team already had a hole down the middle behind Hughes and Hischer, and the injury news could prompt some movement from the Devils.
Devils Place Connor Brown On IR, Recall Shane Lachance
With today’s news that the New Jersey Devils will be without Jack Hughes for at least one game due to a freak accident at a team dinner, the Devils needed another body for their upcoming game against the Washington Capitals. To that end, New Jersey announced they’ve placed Connor Brown on the injured reserve (retroactive to October 30th) and has recalled Shane Lachance from the AHL’s Utica Comets.
The move is status quo for Brown. He didn’t join the team for their five-game road trip due to an upper-body injury, so a placement on the IR won’t alter his recovery timeline at all.
New Jersey has not provided any updates on Brown’s return, but we should receive more clarity once the team returns home. Brown has already missed the Devils’ last six games, so he’ll miss a minimum of 10.
Brown signed for a relatively cheap four-year, $12MM this past summer in an attempt to add some goal-scoring punch to the team’s middle-six. He did just that to start the season, scoring five goals in 11 games before going down with the injury.
Meanwhile, Lachance will have the opportunity to play in his NHL debut during the recall. The 22-year-old forward was signed as a collegiate free agent last season out of Boston University, where he was the team’s captain. Lachance scored 12 goals and 30 points in 40 games throughout his last year with the Terriers. Still, he’s had a disappointing transition to professional hockey, tallying only one assist in 11 games for AHL Utica so far this campaign.
Devils Reportedly Interested In Acquiring Blake Coleman
- According to David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period (per James Nichols of NJ Hockey Now), the New Jersey Devils are contemplating an attempt to bring back a familiar face. Pagnotta indicated that the Devils are interested in acquiring forward Blake Coleman from the Calgary Flames, who scored 57 goals and 94 points in 237 games for New Jersey from 2016 to 2020. Unfortunately, Coleman has a $4.9MM salary for this year and next with a 10-team no-trade clause, which is something the Devils couldn’t afford unless they moved out their own salary.
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Devils Recall Nathan Legare, Place Zack MacEwen On IR
According to a team announcement, the New Jersey Devils have recalled forward Nathan Legare from the AHL’s Utica Comets. Additionally, the team placed Zack MacEwen on injured reserve in a corresponding roster move.
It’s the first recall of the year for the former 74th overall pick of the 2019 NHL Draft. Legare has spent his first 11 games of the 2025-26 season with the Comets, registering one goal and 21 PIMs with a -7 rating.
If Legare plays in the Devils’ next game against the Washington Capitals, it’ll be his first NHL contest in nearly a year. He earned a three-game stint with New Jersey in December of last year, going scoreless. The remainder of his season was spent in Utica, where he scored 17 goals and 25 points in 69 games with 102 PIMs.
Meanwhile, MacEwen lands on the IR for the second time this season, this time with a lower-body ailment. His recent trip on the IR kept him out of the lineup from October 11th to November 10th. Due to repeated injuries, the physical 29-year-old depth forward has only managed three contests with the Devils this season, going scoreless. MacEwen spent the last two years with the Ottawa Senators, where he scored four goals and six points in 51 games while also recording 104 hits.
Hall Of Fame Journalist Larry Brooks Passes Away At 75
Longtime New York Post columnist and Hockey Hall Of Fame writer Larry Brooks has passed away at the age of 75 after a battle with cancer. Brooks spent 38 years with the Post, across two tenures, split by his work as the Senior Vice President Of Communications with the New Jersey Devils from 1982 to 1992.
Commonly refered to as “Brooksie”, Brooks’ time with The Post began in 1976. He originally covered the Ne wYork Islanders and the MLB’s New York Yankees, who he followed on a run to the World Series Championship in 1977. He took on covering the Rangers in the following year, and continued on for five years before taking on coverage of the Devils following their relocation from Colorado. That role blossomed into an executive role in New Jersey’s front office, giving Brooks a rare mix of experience on both sides of the mic. He became The Post’s primary Rangers beat writer and principal hockey columnist for their paper soon after his return to journalism in 1992.
Brooks covered the Rangers with great intimacy and consistency, modeling beat coverage for many up-and-coming journalists. That exemplary performance was recognized in 2001, when Brooks was named president of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association. He carried the title for three years, supporting the group that oversees voting for seven annual awards handed out by the NHL. The PHWA also votes for the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award, presented by the Hockey Hall of Fame to recognize those who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.
Fittingly, Brooks won the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award himself in 2018. The Hockey Hall of Fame honored Brooks alongside longtime Toronto Maple Leafs broadcaster Joe Bowen.
Brooks was impossible to miss over his time covering the Rangers. Not only did his columns often headline The Post, but his words often found their way into the New York fandom zietgeist. He is often credited as being the one to award Henrik Lundqvist with his popular nickname, “The King”. Brooks was also a vocal challenger to longtime Rangers head coach John Tortorella, with the two butting heads more than a few times during Tortorella’s tenure from 2008 to 2013. The Post shares that Tortorella had reached out to check-in on Brooks over the last week, something that Brooks’ son, Jordan, says meant a lot to his father.
Brooks will be rememebered as a titan of hockey journalism, with the demeanor to stand up to hard-headed head coaches and unfair labor disputes. He was vocal and proud in both the small and the big moments. He watched over a 9-8-7 record to start New York’s season – a nice step forward from a dismal season last year. His final column was an analysis of why defender Braden Schneider deserves loftier minutes.
Brooks leaves behind a son, a daughter-in-law, Joanna, and two grandchildren. His work with The Post will be continued by longtime colleague Mollie Walker. Pro Hockey Rumors sends our condolences to Brooks’ family, friends, and the entire New York sports fanbase.
Devils, Islanders Discussed Simon Nemec Trade
The Devils and Islanders had preliminary discussions over the offseason regarding a trade that would have sent former No. 2 overall pick Simon Nemec to Long Island, according to a report from The Athletic’s Arthur Staple on Daily Faceoff’s “Tri-State Hockey Podcast.” Staple clarified that those talks were initiated from the Isles’ side, not necessarily because New Jersey was expressly shopping the defender.
The fact that the Islanders would have interest in a right-shot defender with top-pairing potential in the early stages of their retool is unsurprising. The fact that a trade didn’t materialize between cross-state, divisional rivals is equally as unsurprising. Nemec, a 6’1″ 21-year-old, was drafted in 2022 ahead of Logan Cooley, Cutter Gauthier, and Shane Wright in the top five but hasn’t nearly clicked at the NHL level to the degree they have. He had a strong rookie showing in 2023-24, when an injury to Dougie Hamilton allowed Nemec to make 60 appearances while averaging nearly 20 minutes per game. He recorded 19 points (three goals, 16 assists), posted a -7 rating, and led the team with 105 blocks.
That’s a fine stat line for a rearguard in his 19-year-old season who was always seen as a bit of a project in a weaker draft class. However, his development since then hasn’t been linear. Nemec lost ice time last season after the Devils added veterans Brenden Dillon, Johnathan Kovacevic, and Brett Pesce to insulate their blue line. He ended up playing more with AHL Utica than he did with the Devils, where his usage dipped to 14:59 per game across 27 appearances. When dressed, he was more of a liability than a non-factor. He had just four points with a -10 rating despite playing sheltered offensive minutes at 5-on-5. He started 64.6% of his shifts in the offensive zone but controlled just 44.3% of shot attempts.
Even with those struggles, the Devils made clear at last season’s trade deadline that he wasn’t someone they intended to move. It would have taken an above-market-value offer to move him, something the Islanders didn’t provide. Staple speculated that their offer started with the Avalanche’s 2026 first-round pick, which they had previously acquired for Brock Nelson at last season’s trade deadline. With that expected to fall in the 20-and-below range, that’s not a particularly compelling piece on its own and likely would have needed to be paired with an impact roster player, at least, to get a deal across the finish line. New Jersey’s cap crunch would have made that a non-starter.
It’s unclear when these talks occurred in relation to the draft, but it is of little consequence. The Islanders still have Scott Mayfield and Ryan Pulock signed long-term on the right side, but their organizational depth behind them is extremely light. Tony DeAngelo and Adam Boqvist are rostered on expiring deals as stopgap solutions, and their only right-shot options in the minors are veterans Ethan Bear and Cole McWard. Their two top defense prospects behind Matthew Schaefer, Kashawn Aitcheson and Isaiah George are both lefties. Changing that is likely one of general manager Mathieu Darche‘s more pressing priorities next summer.
As for the Devils, they’re likely feeling justified in their decision to hold onto Nemec. An injury to Pesce has once again afforded Nemec expanded ice time to start the season. He’s appeared in all 16 games and leads their blue line in scoring with a goal and eight assists for nine points, adding a +1 rating and 26 blocks. His 17:47 average time on ice is still lacking compared to his rookie season, but that’s because he’s not factoring in on either special teams unit – making his point production all the more impressive.